ACTOR Craig Conway is settling back home in the North with his new love, the Sunday Sun can reveal.

The Doomsday and Descent star has been living and working in London after splitting from his ex-wife, actress Jill Halfpenny, in a very amicable separation last year.

Craig now has a new home close to the countryside in Durham, where he can share quality time with his girlfriend Kirsty Lamb and his and Jill’s son Harvey.

But he may not be settled for too long because he’s the North’s busiest actor right now, set to star in no less than 11 film and TV projects over the next year playing a butler, an angel, a crazy Geordie chav, a soldier and a cuckolded businessman amongst his roles.

Kirsty is there, however, to keep him grounded.

He said: “It’s gone a bit mad – it’s exciting.

“Over summer I was making a film during the day and at night my girlfriend was driving me to London to film for a new BBC3 series.

“I’m certainly not at the level where I can take a private helicopter and there were times when I felt like saying ‘hey Noel Edmonds, help us out!’

“I’m basically up here to have my life outside of work and the rest of time I’m working in London.

“It’s great to spend quality time with my girlfriend and Harvey. I’m in Durham which is lovely, close to the horses so my girlfriend is teaching me to ride.

“It’s a lovely house where I can chill and I’m really enjoying spending time in a new relationship – it’s amazing and Kirsty’s brilliant.

“I’ve actually known Kirsty for years and she’s been a really good friend – she doesn’t care at all about the film stuff and just lets me get on with it.

“I think it’s easier being with someone not involved in the industry in some ways – there’s only one ego! I can be a drama queen and I need keeping in check sometimes.

“At the end of the day, making films is just pretend and not real, so it’s nice having a partner who can keep me grounded in reality.

“Kirsty has been a nurse for eight years – she’s an orthopaedic trauma nurse now – so even though being an actor might inspire some people’s lives, Kirsty is actually saving them.”

Craig has already filmed many of his upcoming TV and film roles, but is set to make a whole host of films over the next year – including one called Airline alongside one of his childhood heroes Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy.

He quipped: “I was a big fan but always wanted to be Hans Solo rather than Luke.”

The South Shields-born star, 35, will next be seen in the claustrophobic, Harold Pinter-esque movie Four, also starring his close pal Sean Pertwee – and there are high hopes it will get its own North premiere as well as runs in regional cinemas.

Craig plays a cuckolded businessman who hires a thug to kidnap his wife’s lover to teach him a lesson – but the plan goes horribly wrong.

Craig added: “I play a jealous husband who hires a dodgy detective to find his wife’s lover, bring him to a place and basically scare his wife, but it all goes terribly wrong.

“There’s no such thing as a simple plan, which Four shows you. There’s a lot of dark humour in the script.

“It comes across as theatre for the screen.

“It’s released in London next month and I hope everyone in the North will get to see it too.”